Two SU law school teams heading to national championship

Syracuse, NY - The Syracuse University College of Law swept the National Trial Competition (NTC) Region II Championship held recently at the Onondaga County Courthouse.

Two teams from each of eight law schools in New York - SU, Brooklyn Law School, Fordham University School of Law, Hofstra University School of Law, Pace University Law School, St. John's University School of Law, University of Buffalo Law School and Yeshiva University Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law - competed. The two SU teams won top honors – one beating Fordham and the other topping Cardozo - to move on to the national championship next month in Dallas, Texas.

The SU teams include third-year students Hayley Campbell, Brandon Cotter and Ese Omofoma and second-year students Hillary Reinharz and Shelley Thompson. They are coached by local lawyer Joanne Van Dyke. Campbell won Overall Best Advocate, Best Opening Statement and Best Cross-Examination. Omofoma won Best Advocate in the Final Round.

About 100 local lawyers and judges volunteered to presided over the mock trials. About 150 others – many of them SU law students but also friends, neighbors and a parish priest Van Dyke said she recruited to participate – played trial witnesses.

Van Dyke said the program is a useful learning experience for students and helps teach the art of advocacy and respect for the court, opposing counsel and the legal system in general.

Uncoached "Moot Court" team from SU places 5th nationally
In other “court” news, two undergraduate students in the SU College of Arts and Sciences recently placed fifth out of 64 teams in the American Collegiate Moot Court Association National Tournament in Florida.

Moot court focuses on constitutional questions that could be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court. Mock court focuses on jury trial issues.

Sophomore Kenneth Alter and junior Andrew Rice argued their way to the nationals - from an initial pool of 254 teams - despite having no coach and the fact SU did not have an undergraduate Moot Court program when they started.

Alter, who twice won the Princeton University Moot Court Championship for high school students, joined SU’s Mock Trial team as a freshman and then worked to develop a plan to allow SU to participate in the 2009-2010 Moot Court competition, recruiting fellow Mock Trial team member Rice to join him.

SU law students helped the pair by sitting as judges and offering advice. Alter’s grandparents also recruited some retired New Jersey State Supreme Court judges and lawyers from a major New Jersey law firm to hear the duo’s arguments and provide feedback leading up to the nationals.

Alter and Rice are working on a proposal to formally begin an undergraduate Moot Court team at SU. Any undergraduate student interested in joining Alter and Rice for the 2010-2011 season can contact Alter at klalter@syr.edu.

Two SU undergraduate teams head to "Mock Trial" nationals
Two teams from SU’s undergraduate Mock Trial Program are moving on to the opening round of the American Mock Trial Association (AMTA) national championship tournament in White Plains after placing fourth and seventh out of 24 teams in the recent Finger Lakes regional.

Teams competed from SU; Binghamton, St. Bonaventure, Buffalo, Colgate, Cornell, New York and Penn State universities; Buffalo State, Canisius, Hamilton and Siena colleges, SUNY Fredonia and Geneseo and the University of Rochester.

It’s only the second time in the 11-year history of SU’s Mock Trial Program that two teams will be competing at the national level.

Competing students (from the College of Arts and Sciences, the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, the College of Visual and Performing Arts and the Whitman School of Management ) include seniors Matthew Cujak, Meghan McCormack, Tarek Zatet and Regina (Youg Yeon) Ryou; juniors Zachary Lax, Andrew Rice, Kelly (Nachong) Kim, Jamie Greenwood, Danielle Waugh and Daniel Bateman; sophomores Kenneth Alter, He Lin Lee, Ashley White and Amanda St. Hilaire, and freshmen Jeremy Edwards and Kelyn Smith.